I enjoy science-fiction, but I'm not an aircraft aficionado. What makes the SR-71 so awesome to me is that it looks like about the coolest spacecraft I could have imagined when I was 10 years old. And it still looks that way to me.
What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
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Re: What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
#32" The U-2 can still fly higher than the Global Hawk, carry a greater payload, and its sensors have more of a slant range. The Global Hawk also lacks de-icing equipment and countermeasures against Russian SAMs. We may be entering the age of drones, but old-fashioned piloted planes can still do a thing or two." Why not just copy the U2 and make an improved, unmanned version?
The U-2 was developed in 18 months with COTS goods and requires a finesse to fly that I think would be tough to replicate with computers. And Russian SAMs can easily take out a U-2, so I'm not sure what the author is trying to say there, to be honest with you.
"tough to replicate with computers"
I was under the impression that computers can fly planes which are impossible for humans to fly (e.g. the F-117, or any fighter with forward-swept wings). Since the U-2 is much closer to a "conventional" aircraft, and can be stick-flown by a human, wouldn't it be a walk in the park for a compute to fly it?
Re: What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
#33i highly recommend reading this guy's hunt for the wrecked A-12 (the CIA's early variant of the SR-71): http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange...
He has a number of great pieces on his site.
I'd also recommend "The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans"
http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hun...
Re: What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
#34I enjoy science-fiction, but I'm not an aircraft aficionado. What makes the SR-71 so awesome to me is that it looks like about the coolest spacecraft I could have imagined when I was 10 years old. And it still looks that way to me.
Yeah, child hood memories with GI Joe come to mind [1]
[1] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0a/8c/a7/0a8ca767c485d88869af...
Re: What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
#35My favorite story about the SR-71 being badass: http://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-sr-71-story-107912704...
That ones great, but I always like the question of how slow it could fly: https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-sr-71-blackbirds-most-...
See also a story about testing the minimum airspeed on a single engine, from the book "Contrails over the Mojave": https://books.google.ie/books?id=NTU9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT114&lpg=P...
Re: What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
#36" The U-2 can still fly higher than the Global Hawk, carry a greater payload, and its sensors have more of a slant range. The Global Hawk also lacks de-icing equipment and countermeasures against Russian SAMs. We may be entering the age of drones, but old-fashioned piloted planes can still do a thing or two." Why not just copy the U2 and make an improved, unmanned version?
If you are interested in how the Pentagon, Air Force and Navy decides to fund and build aircraft, I highly recommend reading this book [1]. It's about the father of the A-10, F15 (sort of), F-16 and FA-18. Fascinating read about how the armed forces will completely ignore data on flight characteristics due to politics. (it's about the life of John Boyd, not just how aircraft a chosen but its covered quite a bit in th…
I second this book recommendation. Reading one of Boyd's more epic slide decks might be interesting to some: http://www.ausairpower.net/JRB/poc.pdf
The priority placed on tight OODA loops jibes well with the Lean Startup doctrine, I think. Of course, since there's always an aggressive competitor for resources in Boyd's field, he emphasizes messing up their OODA loop as well.
Re: What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
The U-2 was developed in 18 months with COTS goods and requires a finesse to fly that I think would be tough to replicate with computers. And Russian SAMs can easily take out a U-2, so I'm not sure what the author is trying to say there, to be honest with you.
"tough to replicate with computers" I was under the impression that computers can fly planes which are impossible for humans to fly (e.g. the F-117, or any fighter with forward-swept wings). Since the U-2 is much closer to a "conventional" aircraft, and can be stick-flown by a human, wouldn't it be a walk in the park for a compute to fly it?
Flappy wings, tough to land.
Computers don't fly the F-117, they help humans fly it. The difference between the two is significant.
Re: What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
#38I didn't make it past the first lovely sentence. "With a sleek needle nose and a swept double-delta wing with two prominent nacelles, the supersonic SR-1 Blackbird spy plane is the stuff aviation legend." SR-1? "Stuff aviation legend"? I'd expect a little better editing from Popular Mechanics.
You stopped reading the entire article because they dropped an "of"?
I'm more bothered by the tautology. What is an unswept delta-wing supposed to look like?
Re: What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
#39" The U-2 can still fly higher than the Global Hawk, carry a greater payload, and its sensors have more of a slant range. The Global Hawk also lacks de-icing equipment and countermeasures against Russian SAMs. We may be entering the age of drones, but old-fashioned piloted planes can still do a thing or two." Why not just copy the U2 and make an improved, unmanned version?
The U-2 was developed in 18 months with COTS goods and requires a finesse to fly that I think would be tough to replicate with computers. And Russian SAMs can easily take out a U-2, so I'm not sure what the author is trying to say there, to be honest with you.
The U-2 is basically a F-104 with glider wings. The landing gear situation is something only crazy cold war people would approve of.
It's a testament to the engineering that what was by all rights a quick hack job has managed to stand the test of time.
Re: What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
A good one (although some may dislike it): On the way back from a mission to the middle east, they ended up flying over France, even though France had refused them clearance. They were flying low and slow (relative terms obviously), and the pilot looked to his left and saw a French Mirage just off his left wing. The Mirage pilot called over and requested their diplomatic clearance code. The SR-71 pilot told the Mirag…
How does a middle finger get transmitted? Had ascii art handy?
That story is from Ben Rich's book "Skunk Works". https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/blackbird/ describes it as "Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr., who shares about a particular mission he flew over Lebanon back in 82." That link also has the full account, ending "What he had given him was “the bird” with his middle finger" - that is, it was not sent by radio signals but by visual light to the Mark I eyeball of the Mirage pilot.